Uganda’s Museveni Promises to Finish Somalia’s al-Shabab

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, came to the throne of Uganda’s highest office in January of 1986. Ever since, besides skirmishes with the Lord’s Resistance Army of Joseph Kony, Uganda has remained at peace not until last week when two well-coordinated simultaneous suicide bombs thought to have been planted by Somalia’s militant group al-Shabab shuttered the tiny nation’s capital Kampala at a time when Ugandans were glued to their televisions in anticipation of the final world cup soccer match between Spain and the Netherlands in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Saddened by the heinous crime that crippled his nation on that fateful Sunday, Yoweri Museveni has promised to send extra troops for the AMISOM mission in Somalia. In an African Union meeting convened in Kampala this week, Museveni asked union members to allow AMISOM troops to pursue al-Shabab militants anywhere and anytime inside of Somalia.

For sure, Museveni does not understand the enormity of Somalia’s instability and the strength of al-Shabab as a force. What Museveni fails to understand is that al-Shabab is a splinter group from the former Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) that routed Ethiopia’s occupation forces a few years ago in the streets of Mogadishu. For sure, Museveni’s wild imaginations are easier said than done. The man must be daydreaming.

Joseph Kony, the atrocious warlord who wrecked havoc in Uganda for many decades and aided by an army of Ugandan child-soldiers and sex slaves, remains on the run in the jungles of the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Leg-and-hand-slashing Joseph Kony has evaded all kinds of international dragnets. In order to turn a blind eye on the plunders of the LRA's ragtag militia, Yoweri Museveni feels its time to open a new warfront.

Alice Lakwena, the prophetess who shared the same views as Joseph Kony and who aided him in his war operations, miraculously died in Dadaab Refugee Camp in Kenya. Let it be known to many that the plunders of the natural resources of the Democratic People's Republic of Congo by the Uganda army has not been forgotten.

Despite the west seeing Museveni as a ‘promising African leader’, for many in Uganda he is nothing but a criminal whose days are numbered. Under Museveni, Uganda enjoys little political freedom. Many in the opposition feel suppressed by the biased state security apparatus.